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Author Topic: Z3200 woes  (Read 3822 times)

jasdown

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Z3200 woes
« on: December 16, 2009, 12:40:22 pm »

In October I purchased a new HP Z3200 from a reseller with a strong online presence. I chose this company not because it offered the lowest price but, rather, because I perceived it to be a service-oriented reseller. The fact is I could have gotten a fully-waranted refurb Z3200 from a local reseller for about $1000 less, but I elected to pay extra for the "peace of mind" factor from the reseller who paid for the Google hits, especially since at the time there was a $500 rebate offered for an upgrade from my qualifying old 24" vinyl cutter. In short, the promised $500 "rebate assistance" from the reseller was very much the deciding factor in selecting that company for the new Z3200 purchase.

Although the Z3200 arrived in a dented carton on a broken pallet and I could never fully implement all the features of the HP Utility software on my XP Pro desktop (HP Tech Support's eventual opinion: "it might be a virus"), I attributed none of these unfortunate incidents to the reseller in question. I did, in fact, enjoy rather exemplary service from this company until about the middle of November. Based on the always helpful advice I have received from forum members here at the Luminous Landscape, I made my 1st paper selection and purchased from said dealer a roll of HP Professional Satin Photo Paper. Shortly thereafter, I received email confirmation of delivery from the company, along with the most welcome news that a sample roll of 24" matte and other unspecified paper samples had been sent to me on that date as well! That was very gracious on their part but, unfortunately, the samples never arrived. However, news of these samples prompted me to, in turn, offer sample outputs to a potential client who was less than thrilled by my Pro Satin choice. When I inquired about the status of the samples via email (as the client, a graphic designer, was curious as to when he could see his files printed on them), I received no reply. My biggest concern, however, remained the $500 rebate, as I underwent a layoff due to a work slowdown at my day job in late November.

On 12/2 I inquired about the status of the rebate to both HP's marketing agent and the reseller. I received a somewhat curt reply (no salutations) from the reseller that I should receive my rebate no later than 12/15. To date, however, I have not received the promised rebate. A call to HP's marketing agent today said that the 12/15 date was "misinformed," and that the rebate was at least another two weeks out (although received and processed on 10/27, the payout period was now extended from 6 weeks to 8 weeks).

In the meantime, my Z3200 has logged two "severe" rated errors which look rather ominously to me to be an imminent hard drive or motherboard failure, and the HP Tech Support response has been to just have me continually run test outputs on my expensive HP Pro Satin and to get back with them if it should happen again. The Z3200 puchase was a big investment for me (an admitted "small fish" if ever there was one!), and I am feeling very abandoned by the HP authorized dealer. In fact, were it not for the incredible online support of the Luminous Landscape forum community, I would feel pretty much completely "orphaned". What's more, I am now nearly at the end of all my "starter" inks and was hoping that I could offset the considerable expense of the higher capacity 130 ml set with the $500 rebate.
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tonywong

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Z3200 woes
« Reply #1 on: December 16, 2009, 07:57:14 pm »

Quote from: jasdown
In October I purchased a new HP Z3200 from a reseller with a strong online presence. I chose this company not because it offered the lowest price but, rather, because I perceived it to be a service-oriented reseller. The fact is I could have gotten a fully-waranted refurb Z3200 from a local reseller for about $1000 less, but I elected to pay extra for the "peace of mind" factor from the reseller who paid for the Google hits, especially since at the time there was a $500 rebate offered for an upgrade from my qualifying old 24" vinyl cutter. In short, the promised $500 "rebate assistance" from the reseller was very much the deciding factor in selecting that company for the new Z3200 purchase.

Although the Z3200 arrived in a dented carton on a broken pallet and I could never fully implement all the features of the HP Utility software on my XP Pro desktop (HP Tech Support's eventual opinion: "it might be a virus"), I attributed none of these unfortunate incidents to the reseller in question. I did, in fact, enjoy rather exemplary service from this company until about the middle of November. Based on the always helpful advice I have received from forum members here at the Luminous Landscape, I made my 1st paper selection and purchased from said dealer a roll of HP Professional Satin Photo Paper. Shortly thereafter, I received email confirmation of delivery from the company, along with the most welcome news that a sample roll of 24" matte and other unspecified paper samples had been sent to me on that date as well! That was very gracious on their part but, unfortunately, the samples never arrived. However, news of these samples prompted me to, in turn, offer sample outputs to a potential client who was less than thrilled by my Pro Satin choice. When I inquired about the status of the samples via email (as the client, a graphic designer, was curious as to when he could see his files printed on them), I received no reply. My biggest concern, however, remained the $500 rebate, as I underwent a layoff due to a work slowdown at my day job in late November.

On 12/2 I inquired about the status of the rebate to both HP's marketing agent and the reseller. I received a somewhat curt reply (no salutations) from the reseller that I should receive my rebate no later than 12/15. To date, however, I have not received the promised rebate. A call to HP's marketing agent today said that the 12/15 date was "misinformed," and that the rebate was at least another two weeks out (although received and processed on 10/27, the payout period was now extended from 6 weeks to 8 weeks).

In the meantime, my Z3200 has logged two "severe" rated errors which look rather ominously to me to be an imminent hard drive or motherboard failure, and the HP Tech Support response has been to just have me continually run test outputs on my expensive HP Pro Satin and to get back with them if it should happen again. The Z3200 puchase was a big investment for me (an admitted "small fish" if ever there was one!), and I am feeling very abandoned by the HP authorized dealer. In fact, were it not for the incredible online support of the Luminous Landscape forum community, I would feel pretty much completely "orphaned". What's more, I am now nearly at the end of all my "starter" inks and was hoping that I could offset the considerable expense of the higher capacity 130 ml set with the $500 rebate.

Sorry to hear about your woes. If my Z3100 came on a broken pallet and dented carton I would refuse delivery, and when mine came I made sure to have my camera out to photograph any anomalies, since an incident would be costly if HP decided it wasn't in their scope of warranty.

I'm crossing my fingers since I am out of the warranty period now but the HP has been stellar outside of software gremlins. The hardware has been exemplary for me, but some of the logged SW/OS errors can be pretty off putting.
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Thomas Krüger

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Z3200 woes
« Reply #2 on: December 17, 2009, 02:28:47 am »

Post your error codes. With the Z3100 service manual, the "unofficial Z3100 wiki" and the help of forum members you can resolve a vast amount of hassle.
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artobest

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Z3200 woes
« Reply #3 on: December 17, 2009, 08:34:22 am »

If you've got an imminent hard drive failure, you won't be alone. There seems to be a problem with many of the Z3200 motherboards ("formatters"). THe HP technical support guy I dealt with (fantastically helpful, by the way) didn't seem at all surprised and ordered me a new one right away. Interestingly, it took a week or two to arrive due to shortage of supply ...  

However, since replacing the formatter (child's play) I have had a fantastic machine with no more than the odd software quirk to disturb me. Beautiful prints, cheap to run, convenient and good-looking.
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rdonson

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Z3200 woes
« Reply #4 on: December 17, 2009, 09:57:57 am »

Get HP to send a tech out to you to service the printer.  My experiences with the onsite service is very good.  They're friendly and dedicated and will make you happy.  To make me feel better because of the time wasted fixing my Z3100 (required 4 visits) they provided a complete set of 130ml ink carts.  The printer has run like a champ ever since they fixed it.
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Regards,
Ron

Roscolo

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Z3200 woes
« Reply #5 on: December 17, 2009, 01:30:43 pm »

Quote from: jasdown
Although the Z3200 arrived in a dented carton on a broken pallet

And you have identified the source of your woes. You should not have accepted the damaged product and had it returned and a new one shipped. Why did you accept a damaged shipment?

Expensive lesson.

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artobest

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Z3200 woes
« Reply #6 on: December 18, 2009, 04:02:49 pm »

Quote from: Roscolo
And you have identified the source of your woes. You should not have accepted the damaged product and had it returned and a new one shipped. Why did you accept a damaged shipment?

Expensive lesson.

Don't make the guy feel bad. Almost certainly it has nothing to do with the broken pallet. It's an inherent problem with the machine.
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Roscolo

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Z3200 woes
« Reply #7 on: December 18, 2009, 11:30:33 pm »


Not trying to make anyone feel bad; just stating the obvious. If a $6,000 piece of technology shows up via freight on a broken pallet in a dented carton, you don't accept delivery. Period. The moment when that trucker tries to drop the damaged goods at your door is your one and only opportunity to note the damage and send it back and get a brand new printer shipped out. You should take a few photos of the damage before the truck drives away. And, yes, any shock strong enough to break a strong wooden pallet like the Z's were shipped on is likely the cause of problems.


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tonywong

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Z3200 woes
« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2009, 02:54:26 am »

Quote from: Roscolo
Not trying to make anyone feel bad; just stating the obvious. If a $6,000 piece of technology shows up via freight on a broken pallet in a dented carton, you don't accept delivery. Period. The moment when that trucker tries to drop the damaged goods at your door is your one and only opportunity to note the damage and send it back and get a brand new printer shipped out. You should take a few photos of the damage before the truck drives away. And, yes, any shock strong enough to break a strong wooden pallet like the Z's were shipped on is likely the cause of problems.

The issue is that you can't tell whether the shipping damage is the cause of the issues or not. The best way to avoid that problem was to refuse delivery on the spot and call the vendor or HP. Only if I was desperate to get prints going would I have taken it, and only under the conditions that the shipment was noted to be damaged in transit and that HP would accept an extended warranty plan in case any of the shipping damage turned out to have caused further issues down the line.

At this point it really is hard to say what the problem with the unit is. I've had scary errors from the printer, sometimes from jobs I've submitted, sometimes probably from having the printer idle too long without rebooting. In any event, I've been lucky so far that I haven't needed to call HP for any errors since its been out of warranty.
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